Today we started our walk as five - my walking buddy Gill and I were joined by Sarah from the Voluntary Sector Assembly and her husband, and Peter who was my Deputy when I first joined the charity. Peter had later gone to work for the Council with responsibility for footpaths and in particular, the Shropshire Way. He knew the route like the back of his hand and was a wealth of information - how lucky was that!
The first part of our route took us to Hadnall where we had a choice of rest stops, the pub or the village hall, except neither was open.
It was a good half a mile on before I suddenly realised I had left my phone inside the hall and I had no choice but to go back for it. Scouts pace was called for but it still took a good 20 minutes there and back. Fortunately the playgroup was still in residence!
Our next hold up was on the Sansaw estate where my carelessness meant we co-incided with a parade of cows on their way to milking. 700 of them! And, as curious as ever, us watching just slowed them down, and then we had a chat with the herdswoman.
My plan had been to call in to an alpaca farm, which is in the ownership of another former colleague, Caroline, but by now we had lost so much time it was no longer possible. I called her and arranged to meet her en route and she would walk the last stretch with us to Wem.
But somehow we missed her. The last part of the walk was particularly tedious, walking into a residential area and with only intermittent footpaths we had to keep crossing the road.
Wem Town Hall had stayed open especially for me and was a very agreeable sight. And even better, there was a little welcome party with Caroline, and Carol from Wem Town Council and Lyneal.
We will meet Carol again next week, but for now I am looking forward to a restful weekend to recharge my batteries.
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